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dvkidmat
Inspiring
March 2, 2018
Answered

Mac Pro (Late 2013) with macOS High Sierra struggles to work well with Premiere Pro

  • March 2, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 3381 views

Let me begin by saying that I have an identical machine at work that works perfectly, with the only difference being that it is still running macOS Sierra.

Machine Specifications:

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

Processor 2.7 GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5

Memory 64GB

GPU Dual AMD FirePro D700s

OS macOS High Sierra

After updating my personal machine to High Sierra, I immediately experienced dropped frames while editing Red Raw footage. Keep in mind that I have been editing Red Raw footage on this machine at FULL QUALITY since I purchased it in late 2013, often with multiple layers active simultaneously. Now, after importing a clip, I can barely play the clip back at half quality. I decided to compare this problem to my machine at work, an identical Mac Pro that is still running Sierra, and it plays the clip back at full resolution without any problems. I decided to change my project's settings to use software only, instead of using the GPUs for acceleration, and the playback was identical to my machine at home, the one running High Sierra. This tells me that even though I can select the option to use GPU acceleration (Metal or OpenCL) on my machine at home, Premiere is only actually using software, and I am not benefitting from any GPU acceleration. An application from Red, called REDCINE-X PRO, was recently updated to remedy a similar problem, as it was no longer using GPU acceleration after updating to High Sierra, and now it works perfectly again on my machine at home. Therefore, I know it isn't a hardware issue, so it must be something related to High Sierra. I am looking for the best way to get back to a normal Premiere Pro editing experience, and I thought updates would address this, but so far nothing has helped.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer dvkidmat

I wanted to follow up and say that macOS 10.13.4 has returned the expected level of performance to my Mac Pro. It is worth noting, however, that I must select Open CL instead of Metal as my GPU option in Premiere. After doing this, I am able to view and edit Red Raw footage in full resolution without any noticeable lag, dropped frames, or annoyances.

4 replies

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ryanj60701269
Participant
March 13, 2020

I have the same Mac Pro as you.  I am experiencing major issues with LR. When I edit and export on my slower and smaller Mac Book Pro, I have zero issues.  But, the powerful Mac Pro sucks during import and LR becomes totaly unusuable during export process.  Any help would help me. 

 

pets
pets
Inspiring
October 10, 2019

may i ask if editing 4k footage (canon) in latest ppcc (premiere pro cc) 2019 with a 6 year old mac pro 8core 2013, 64GB RAM and 500GB SSD is too old? (on HighSierra) i edited and colorgraded my very first film the last 4 weeks with professionally produced drone and steadycam footage, watched tons of tutorials before and its really fun to work like this, now its finished, i am glad.

 

what i realized:

 

- istat menus shows, that only 1 of my 2 AMD Fire Pro GPU´s are utilized for playback and playback-render my effects, its a pitty, but they write on this forum, thats the way ppcc is coded on mac, yes?

- final mastering/rendering i dont care, how many GPU´s are utilized, as its overnight, so it could take 8h or whatever.

- istat menus shows, that during editing and renderplayback, mostly 1 or 2 cores are utilized, although my mac pro has 8 cores.

- adobe recommends a GPU with at least 4GB VRAM for editing 4k Footage, so my dual AMD Fire Pro´s with only 3GB VRAM  each is too weak, i think?

- my whole project (400GB) with footage sits on a USB 3.0 external HD, which may slow down playback? istat menus doesnt show any disc activity for this disc though, except when loading the project initially? i also importat all footage, which may slow down the project, i think i have to erase all clips, i didnt use, yes?

 

so, concluding from this, which mac would i need for the next couple of years to work fluent with ppcc and 4-6K footage?

 

thanks!

 

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dvkidmatAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
March 30, 2018

I wanted to follow up and say that macOS 10.13.4 has returned the expected level of performance to my Mac Pro. It is worth noting, however, that I must select Open CL instead of Metal as my GPU option in Premiere. After doing this, I am able to view and edit Red Raw footage in full resolution without any noticeable lag, dropped frames, or annoyances.

Vidya Sagar
Adobe Employee
Vidya Sagar
Adobe Employee
March 13, 2018

Hi dvkidmat,

Sorry for the delay in response. Try to optimize the performance by resetting the permissions using the steps in this article: fixing permissions problem that impedes start of Adobe applications | Creative Cloud blog by Adobe

Let us know the status.

Thanks,

Vidya

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dvkidmatAuthor
Inspiring
March 15, 2018

Hi Vidya,

Thanks for your response and suggestion, but unfortunately it hasn't changed the situation on my system in any measurable way. The lack of performance is exactly as it was when I originally discovered it about a month ago. I have moved all of my important projects to my machine at work and can no longer edit at home, which is quite frustrating, to put it mildly. The only thing I can do now is hope that the next OS update OR the next Premiere update fixes this problem.

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